Sean Gardner, Getty Images It’s a whole new world out there for young artists looking to catch a break and established artists trying to maintain their momentum, but Trent Reznor says the key to approaching the current music business model is somewhat the same for all musicians. He tells Techdirt.com , “My advice today, to established acts and new-coming acts, is the same advice I’d give to myself: pause for a minute, and really think about ‘What is your goal? Where do you see yourself?’” He adds, “As a 22-year-old kid in Cleveland, it seemed to me that just playing out in bars, hoping someone noticed your band, and then offered you a record contract, while that’s possible, I didn’t know anybody, and didn’t know anybody who knew anybody that that had ever happened to. The strategy, then, was let’s work on getting a band, and something that means something, music that matters, music that I feel proud of, and a vibe and name and ‘brand’ of this thing, and then try to reach maybe some small labels that had music in the same vein of what I liked.” But in today’s music scene, there are many more options for getting your music to listeners, and Reznor says it’s more important than ever to define what your ultimate goal is. He explains, “If I were that person [starting out] today, there’s a hell of a lot of things that didn’t exist then, that exist now — like YouTube, like the ability to self-publish, like the ability to reach everyone in the world from your bedroom if they’re interested. I’d focus my efforts on what seems like a logical way to do that [and] that maintains integrity. If my goal is to compete with Rihanna on the pop charts, I’d think that requires going through a major label system with a powerful manager.” For Reznor, he says the decision to revisit the major label strategy for his latest project How to Destroy Angels fit a particular goal, one that differs from what he has to do with Nine Inch Nails . He says he was worried that only Nine Inch Nails fans would follow his new project and that it might not fit what they were looking for, so a label provides him the opportunity to reach more people. He explains, “The main reason I do what I do is I want to do something that matters. I want to be able to create art that reaches the maximum amount of people on my terms … That was a key component … Because it came down to us — us being the band now — sitting around and identifying what our goals were. And the top priority wasn’t to make money. It was to try to reach the most amount of people, and try to reach the most amount of people effectively, that doesn’t feel like it’s coming completely from my backyard. Because I don’t want this project, ultimately, to just be dismissed as a ‘side project’ or … (loud sigh) … a ‘patronizing affair with Trent and his wife.’ Sounds terrible, you know?” [button href=”http://loudwire.com/best-nine-inch-nails-songs/” title=”Next: 10 Best Nine Inch Nails Songs” align=”center”]
YouTube Duff McKagan is taking a little different approach to promoting ‘The Taking’ album, as he’s got a full-length film that goes along with the music. McKagan and his band Loaded intend to show off the new movie in a series of 10 vignettes that will roll out on the band’s YouTube page . The first episode has just gone online and can be seen below. More episodes will follow every Tuesday at the site through Jan. 1, 2013. In the first episode, we get to see McKagan and his band play the new track ‘Executioner’s Song,’ followed by a portion of a day in the life of the group. The singer-bassist is up at the crack of dawn, hanging out by the sea, plotting a band meeting and we get to see him waking all of his bandmates up for what could be one of their most important shows to date. Over the course of the ten episodes, we get to see not only his bandmates — Mike Squires, Jeff Rouse, and Isaac Carpenter — but also some of McKagan’s musical pals like Alice in Chains ‘ Jerry Cantrell and Sean Kinney, Guns N’ Roses ‘ Gilby Clarke, the Sex Pistols ‘ Steve Jones, ZZ Top ‘s Billy F. Gibbons , and Motorhead ‘s Lemmy Kilmister . The movie portion of ‘The Taking’ comes from Black Dahlia Films in association with Eagle Rock Entertainment. So be sure to tune in each Tuesday to the YouTube Channel for Duff McKagan’s Loaded ‘The Taking’ to catch a new scene from the movie. ‘The Taking’ album is out now. Watch Episode 1 of ‘The Taking’ Featuring Duff McKagan’s Loaded ? [button href=”http://loudwire.com/susan-holmes-mckagan-hottest-rockstar-wives/” title=”Next: Susan Holmes-McKagan — Hottest Rockstar Wives” align=”center”]
Facebook: Asking Alexandria Asking Alexandria continue to evolve with each record, and guitarist Ben Bruce tells Billboard that the UK metalcore band’s forthcoming release will be more of a balance between “radio friendly” rock and the “balls-to-the-wall” vibe of some of their earlier material. The guitarist explains, “[The new album is] a lot more mature. [We may have] a lot of radio singles — what we’re calling radio singles, songs we’re going to push towards radio and try to accelerate our career and get to the next level and hopefully bring our old fans across with us.” Though the band has a few more radio-friendly cuts, Bruce is quick to qualify, “[The rest of it will be] our usual balls-to-the-wall kind of stuff. We spent a long time honing in on our song structures and writing techniques and things like that, but there are still heavy songs on the record. We’re not just going to throw that away and kick our original fan base in the teeth by getting rid of all that. There will still be a lot of riffing and screaming. But we feel like we did find a happy medium between being heavy and then being light enough to be on radio, but still keeping the balls in the songs.” Bruce says the band is also staying true to their instruments, revealing that on their last record there were some “fake” noises from computer input. This time, however, the guitarist says things are more organic with a real orchestra backing them up and a church gospel choir singing on a few tracks. Earlier this year, singer Danny Worsnop said of the new music , “It’s literally the best album we can write at this point in time. We spent a lot more time on the music. We spent a lot of time working on these songs and making them be as good as they can possibly be … It’s much more positive than anything we’ve done before. There’s some positive uplifting messages.” While the group has yet to title their album, they have unleashed a new track called ‘Run Free’ that’s being used to promote their headlining stint on the Monster Energy Outbreak Tour . The trek launches Nov. 16 in Edmonton, Ontario. The new album is expected in the first half of 2013. [button href=”http://loudwire.com/killswitch-engage-asking-alexandria-as-i-lay-dying-black-veil-brides-more-to-rock-2012-california-metalfest/” title=”Next: Asking Alexandria Join California Metalfest” align=”center”]
Theo Wargo, Getty Images Here’s a look at the top stories of the day on Loudwire and around the Web: – Metallica have been dedicating their time to completing a new concert DVD and Blu-Ray, and guess what? ‘Quebec Magnetic’ will be ready for the holidays. [ Loudwire ] – Wonder how Kurt Cobain would feel about this? CBS has started developing a new sitcom utilizing the name of Nirvana ‘s hit song — ‘Smells Like Teen Spirit’ — as its working title. [ Loudwire ] – The Presidential debates may be over, but there’s still plenty left to discuss while voting for the President of Heavy Metal. See which eight candidates remain in the Quarterfinals and vote for your favorites to advance. [ Loudwire ] – Former Kiss drummer Peter Criss responds after hearing that Aerosmith ‘s Steven Tyler called his onetime group “a comic-book band.” [ Ultimate Classic Rock ] – Happy 48th birthday today to Metallica bassist Robert Trujillo. Find out more about his musical and personal history. [ Ultimate Metallica ] – Gaslight Anthem have landed ‘Happy Endings’ cutie Elisha Cuthbert for their latest video for ‘Here Comes My Man.’ [ Diffuser.fm ] – French metal favorites Gojira will play their first North American headlining tour early next year, with support from the Devin Townsend Project and the Atlas Moth . [ Rock Music Report ]
Victory Records Swedish metal outfit Sister Sin have unleashed their brand new album ‘Now and Forever’ via Victory Records, and the disc holds true to the band’s rough and tough sound with the power to back it up. The disc starts off with ‘MMXII,’ Roman numerals for ’2012,’ then turns into the fast paced anthem ‘End of the Line,’ which happens to be the lead single off of the new record. “ F— you / F—k them and f—k the world, too / Do I look like some b—- to you ” is just the beginning of ‘Fight Song,’ one of the most raw and hard hitting tracks on ‘Now and Forever.’ The momentum and pace of the entire record continues to ascend when and takes the listeners to new heights with hard-rocking, balls-out tracks such as ‘In It for Life,’ ‘Hearts of Cold’ and ‘Hang ‘Em High.’ Frontwoman Liv Jagrell can croon and yell with the best of them and her no-nonsense, rough-around-the-edge deliverance of lyrics is not to be messed with. While the crunchy riffs, pounding bass lines and thunderously swift drum patterns of her talented bandmates further heighten the energy of the album. Sister Sin’s tunes have an old-school vibe with a refreshing new melodic twist. This balance is evident in tracks like ‘The Chosen Few,’ ‘I’m Not You,’ ‘Running Low’ and ‘Shades of Black.’ ‘Now and Forever’ ends with the incredible piano-driven ballad ‘Morning After,’ beautifully sung by Jagrell as she shows off yet another facet of her vocal abilities. In our exclusive interview , Jagrell says that to her the title of the album means, “We are here now and hopefully forever. We won’t give up.” From beginning to end, ‘Now and Forever’ serves as stellar representation of Sister Sin’s perseverance throughout their music career. ? ? [button href=”http://loudwire.com/sister-sin-unleash-video-for-end-of-the-line/” title=”Check Out Sister Sin’s Video for ‘End of the Line'” align=”center”]
Epiphone / Adrenaline PR Everyone’s favorite animated metal band, Dethklok , are back with their latest disc, ‘Dethalbum III,’ as well as an upcoming tour with Machine Head, All That Remains and Black Dahlia Murder. To celebrate, the band is teaming with Loudwire to give away an Epiphone electric guitar! Dethklok are the band that appears in the animated Adult Swim show ‘Metalocalypse,’ the brainchild of Brendon Small, who also fronts Dethklok for its recordings and live shows. Small is joined in the lineup by drummer Gene Hoglan, bassist Bryan Beller and touring guitarist Mike Keneally. In Loudwire’s review of the band’s new disc, ‘Dethalbum III,’ our writer states, “Strip away the funny and fantastical elements of the ‘Metalocalypse’ cartoon and listen to the music of ‘Dethalbum III,’ and it’ll become painfully obvious why metalheads love the show, the band and Small.” If you wanna see what Dethklok are all about, check out the video for the ‘Dethalbum III’ track ‘I Ejaculate Fire’ below. The album is available for purchase here , while an itinerary and ticket links for Dethklok’s upcoming trek with Machine Head, All That Remains and the Black Dahlia Murder can be found here . And for more on Dethklok, including audio streams and videos, visit this location . So, to get your hands on a Gibson Epiphone “1958″ Korina Explorer courtesy of Dethklok and Loudwire, enter your email in the form below for a chance to win. This contest ends Nov. 23, 2012. Dethklok Epiphone Guitar Giveaway Enter your e-mail address for a chance to win a Gibson Epiphone “1958” Korina Explorer courtesy of Dethklok and Loudwire. Contest ends Nov. 23, 2012. Click here for official rules . By entering this contest, you will receive email newsletters from Loudwire and will be added to the Dethklok mailing list. You may unsubscribe at any time. Email Dethklok, ‘I Ejaculate Fire’ [NSFW]
Liz Ramanand, Loudwire Gojira frontman Joe Duplantier was the guest on Full Metal Jackie’s radio show this past weekend. He spoke all about the band’s upcoming North American tour with Devin Townsend and Atlas Moth. Duplantier also voiced his opinion on the situation of Lamb of God vocalist Randy Blythe being imprisoned in the Czech Republic. If you missed Jackie’s show, read the full interview with Joe Duplantier below: Devin Townsend and Atlas Moth, you’re going to be touring with these guys. Just out of curiosity, do the bands on a tour influence or change the way you think about music? Yes absolutely and that’s why we are who we are today is because we toured with all these bands throughout our career. They’ve had an influence on us – the way we behave onstage, the way we play, they way we approach the whole thing, sometimes it’s purely technical like the way they plug in their gear. So we always learn something from touring with people that’s why I’m so happy to tour with Devin, he’s such an incredible singer – one of my influences actually and he’ll be opening for us [Laughs] how crazy is that? We’re all huge fans of Devin Townsend, Strapping Young Lad, it’s a great honor to have him on tour. He’s such an awesome and really intelligent guy so I’m sure there’s going to be a lot of crazy late night conversations between the two of you guys. Yeah [Laughs] sometimes you get lost when you talk with him because it’s so wide – you have a wide range of subjects he can talk about. He’s an awesome guy. Devin sang on your ‘Sea Shepherd’ EP and you sang on his ‘Deconstruction’ album; any chance you’ll be joining each other onstage on this tour? We’re trained to do good, we’re trained to do our homework, we stress all day because we want to give it our best and he’s still like that. It makes it harder to jump onstage for him after he played or for me when I’m warming up. We haven’t talked about it actually but maybe by the end of the tour we will do something together – that would be awesome. We did in Australia one time – it was a disaster [Laughs]. We didn’t get the chance to rehearse the song at all so it was really weird but it was great because we were onstage with Devin and Fredrik [Thordendal] from Meshuggah so it was very exciting to be onstage with those guys – almost too exciting, we played way too fast and I was watching them onstage and made a lot of mistakes on the guitar. Originally, Gojira was on the bill of the Lamb of God tour that got canceled, France isn’t far from the Czech Republic, what surprised you most about Randy’s [Blythe] situation? What surprised me the most was that they were not aware that one of their fans died before they went there. They were so surprised when they arrived there that police came straight there in the plane and took them to jail – the whole band went to jail the first day. I talked to Chris Adler on the phone, the same day and he was so depressed and they were shocked and surprised that it happened. I don’t know something went wrong somewhere that the information didn’t go to them. I’m sure they would do something if they knew a kid died at one of their shows – at least try to reach the family, send some money – the surprise is what made it really bad for them because they’re gentlemen. Randy is such an incredible guy and I’m sure he would have done something before – I just thought about this now while you were asking me the question, for me it was a bad situation, a very sad situation. I saw Randy when he came back, he has a good, strong spirit so he knows how to react to this and he’ll go back there and finish this whole thing. I hope it will turn good for him, I hope he will not give have to give some more money or go to jail. It’s a well known band it would not have been difficult for someone to get a hold of him, for two years to pass and no one to even try – call the venue, call the agent call the manager, it would’ve taken two seconds. It still just baffles me. The Czech Republic is very, very different than France and other countries – yes you’re right it’s not far, it’s like another state for you Americans but in Europe each country is such a different world. I don’t know how it works over there, it seems like they took advantage of that – having a big American star in their jail, maybe they tried to get some money out of this probably. For me it’s just an accident, he’s not guilty of anything, he’s just a rockstar. He’s a beast onstage and you go to see him onstage, you’re not supposed to be onstage. Anybody who’s been to a Lamb of God show knows it can get violent down there and to go onto the stage while somebody’s performing, it’s not smart. Yeah absolutely, I kicked so many people off stage. Sometimes people get onstage and they dance in front of the microphone so I cannot even see the crowd with them in front of me so I just kick this person, nicely but it could turn out bad. This person could fall on their head and now everybody’s thinking about what happened and I talk to a lot of singers and they said “Never again they will touch a fan, it’s too dangerous.” The new video for ‘Explosia’ really shows the intensity of Gojira live. On tour how do you come down from so much adrenaline? I think it’s the faith that we have in what we do. We really, truly, deeply embrace our music and believe in what we do, I usually say that we’re not great musicians – Mario [Duplaniter] is a very good drummer and he’s very stable, he’s very tight and inventive and he can groove but the rest of us [Laughs] my God it’s a big mess. If you could hear the separate tracks of each show, every guitar player knows when you move your head, you dance on the stage or whatever, it’s hard to play tight so we’re also very, very focused and we try to deliver a very tight show. That show was really hard for us because it was really hot and the stage is small so at one point we said “You know what, let’s be a punk band tonight” [Laughs] because we did this tour recently in the States in small clubs and it was awesome to go back to small clubs and to feel the craziness of the crowd and the heat. I don’t know when we jam onstage we just play our music which is the thing we like the most in life and we feel inspired by this music in general. Full Metal Jackie will welcome Mark Osegueda of Death Angel on her next show. Full Metal Jackie can be heard on radio stations around the country — for a full list of stations, go to fullmetaljackieradio.com .